LED Strip Anatomy Explained
A practical guide to LED strip types and what all those numbers and letters mean.
Most of the places you will visit that sell LED strip, either online or in-person, will dive straight into all different styles they sell with digits, letters and part-numbers such as ‘SMD 5050 60/M RGB 12V’. You’ll get no real explanation as to what it all means or why you would choose one over the other. It can become a confusing and frustrating process without some background knowledge. So, here’s a brief practical overview of what the part numbers mean to the average punter without getting overly technical.
We’ll describe the LED strip as follows. “An array of LEDs and supporting circuitry mounted on a flexible printed circuit board with self-adhesive backing.”
The LED strip is often sold as a consumer product on its own, but it might be more accurately thought of as an electronic component or subassembly. For example, unless it is part of a kit, other items are required to make it work such as a power supply and controller. As you will see, a lot of the naming convention is straight out of the electronics industry handbook and this is perhaps why it is so unhelpful to the normal person on the street. This may change in the future, but for now, we must deal with it, so here goes…
LED
LED is an electronics industry acronym that stands for ‘Light Emitting Diode’. This simply means it is a type of diode that emits light. A diode is a semiconductor device found in modern electronics. Traditionally, LEDs were used as indicators on devices such as CD players and TVs. In recent years, they have been developed to produce a far higher light output than before, enough in fact, to be used in general lighting situations. LEDs convert electrical energy into light (photons) very efficiently compared to conventional lights and are therefore cheaper to run. They also typically have a far longer life span than conventional lighting.
SMD
Again, SMD is an electronics acronym and stands for ‘Surface Mount Device’ and refers to the mounting style of an electronic component, in this case, our LED “chip”. Previously, most electronic components were ‘Through-Hole’ whereby conductive legs on the devices protruded into holes on a printed circuit board and were soldered into place. Surface Mount Devices have solderable pads that hold them in place and do not protrude through the printed circuit board.
5050, 2385, 2216 etc.
We’re still in electronics industry naming convention territory here, but this number simply indicates the size of the SMD LED chip. Measured in millimetres, the number represents height and width. For example, 5050 translates into 5.0 x 5.0mm, and 2835 is 2.8 x 3.5mm. Advances in technology mean brighter and more efficient LEDs are developed over time, and with it often comes new size chips, the takeaway here is bigger is not always better - as with many other areas of life!
60/PM or 60 pcs or 60 x 5050
This section describes the number of LED chips provided per meter on the strip. Generally, the more LEDs per meter, the more light is provided.
RGB, RGBW, WW etc.
These are all acronyms that describe colour or colour temperature.
Multi-colour - RGB
The multi-colour LED strip has three LEDs in one chip. They are red, green and blue. They work together in a similar way to a TV screen pixel whereby the colours are mixed together to create many colours.
White - CW, NW, WW
Within the spectrum of white, there are various colour temperatures available in LED strip. The colour temperature range is known as Correlated Colour Temperature and is measured in kelvin (k). The lower the number, the warmer the temperature. They are generally available in 6000k cool white (CW), 4500k natural white (NW), and 3000k warm white (WW).
Adjustable temperature white - CCT
This strip can display a range of temperatures in the Correlated Colour Temperature (CCT) Kelvin scale. It has a cool white and a warm white LED set in pairs. The two LEDs can be mixed together to create a range of colour temperatures usually from a cool 6000k to a warm 3000k.
Combination - RGBW, RGBWW, RGB+CCT
The most common combination strip is red, green and blue + either cool white or warm white, with the annotation RGBW.
The newest strip currently, but not all that common yet, is multi-colour + adjustable-white, with the annotation RGB+CCT.
12v, 24v
This is the voltage required to power the strip. LED strip requires a corresponding voltage power supply. Higher voltages deliver power more efficiently. Therefore, 24V strip can be run in a longer single length than a 12V strip. As a general rule, a 12V strip maximum single run length is 5 metres whereas 24V is 10 metres.
7.5w, 15w etc.
This is the watts-per-meter specification of the LED strip and is the power required for each meter of strip. The power supply must be able to supply more wattage than the watts per meter x the total number of meters connected to it. For example, 2 meters of strip @ 15W per meter would be 30W total. A power supply of at least 40W would be recommended.
Other specifications related to LED strip
Lumens – The amount of light the strip produces per meter. The higher the number, the higher the light output.
Tape width – Usually 8mm, 10mm and 12mm wide for standard strip.
Roll length – Standard length is 5 meters.
Cut distance – LED strip can be cut to size, but only at designated points on the strip. The distance will vary depending on the type of strip.
IP rating – Another acronym “Ingress Protection” which is the standard relating to the dust (first number) and water (second number) that can penetrate a product. A higher number means higher protection. For example, a non-waterproof strip has a rating of IP20, whilst a waterproof strip has a rating of IP65 or IP67.
CRI - Colour Rendering Index. The process by which your eyes define colour.
So, there you have it, some extra information to help you decipher all those numbers and acronyms that you didn’t understand. Little Anvil sell a small range of LED strip and components here and we use high quality LED in our range of linear wood beam pendant lights found here.